In this Feb. 11, 2010 file photo, conservative online publisher Andrew Breitbart is seen during an interview at his home in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

(Newser)
–
Last year, his clip prompted Shirley Sherrod’s firing; now, Andrew Breitbart’s video editing has driven a University of Missouri professor from his job. Adjunct professor Don Giljum taught a class on the history of labor that a Breitbart blogger called a “how-to college course on violent union tactics.” Supporting the claim were two out-of-context videos posted last Monday, one of which appeared to show Giljum asserting that violence “certainly has its place” as a union tactic (they've since been removed from YouTube).

The other clip showed Judy Ancel, who team-taught the class—which was broadcast over a video link—with Giljum. In it, she says, “violence is a tactic, and it's to be used when it's appropriate.” But Media Matters found the clips to be “specious garbage, edited to literally put words in the mouths of the professors,” writes Max Read at Gawker. Giljum actually says that violence “would do more harm than good,” and Ancel is actually quoting a video the class had just seen. The school's Kansas City campus backed Giljum (who teaches at the St. Louis campus), saying the videos were edited in an "inaccurate and distorted manner." But Giljum says he was still asked to resign, and suggests that the university was “focused on preserving funding” while it faces a lieutenant governor who, Read notes, has been “blustering about the videos.” Click through to Media Matters for transcripts.

The thing that bothers me about this story is that I can find no other verification for this particular reporting of the story. I can find many right-wing accounts on the web, all of them in support of Breithbart, whose view of journalism, the First Amendment and the truth leave much to be desired, in my opinion. I want to believe that the videos were doctored, and remarks were taken out of context, but all of these blogs by opinion people just leave me cold. Right-wing bloggers smell blood and are out to crucify this guy, yet one wonders what he did to draw attention to himself in the first place. And anyone who has ever been to a public college since the 1960s know that there are a lot of professors saying a lot of things, pushing the envelope in order to encourage independent thinking and reasoning on the part of their students, and things can be easily taken out of context, if one, such as Breithbart, so desires. Wish I could find a story on this somewhere other than online, in the print edition of a legitimate newspaper.

nick

May 2, 2011 2:44 PM CDT

If the tape was doctored, the professor should sue Breitbart for monetary damages of job lose, and an additional sum for intentional defamation of character.

Spudsy

May 2, 2011 1:34 PM CDT

Lousy school. Puts out a bunch of undertrained talking head journalists and this story is an example of why.